Tag: Moeed Yusuf

  • ‘World must maintain contact with interim Taliban government in Afghanistan’: Moeed Yusuf tells Wendy Sherman

    ‘World must maintain contact with interim Taliban government in Afghanistan’: Moeed Yusuf tells Wendy Sherman

    National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf, in a meeting with United States (US) Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Thursday, stressed that the world “must maintain contact” with the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan, reports Radio Pakistan.

    During the meeting, both sides expressed the desire to promote bilateral relations between the US and Pakistan.

    Yusuf and Sherman discussed economic cooperation and the regional security situation.

    According to reports, the US was appreciative of Pakistan’s efforts for the evacuation of foreigners from Afghanistan and the help it has extended to the Afghan refugees.

    Moeed Yusuf blatantly said that Indian human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) also pose a threat to regional peace.

    Sherman took to Twitter and tweeted about her meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

    “I met today with Pakistani Foreign Minister @SMQureshiPTI to discuss Afghanistan’s future and the important and long-standing U.S.-Pakistan relationship,” tweeted Sherman.

    US Deputy Secretary of State and her seven-member team arrived in Islamabad on Thursday for a two-day visit to the country.

  • ‘We don’t see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan’: US Deputy Secretary of State

    ‘We don’t see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan’: US Deputy Secretary of State

    United States (US) Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, while speaking at an event in Mumbai, said, “We (the US) don’t see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan and we have no interest in returning to the days of a hyphenated India, Pakistan. That’s not where we are, that’s not where we are going to be,” reports The Print.

    “But we all need to know what’s going on in Afghanistan. We all need to be of one mind in the approach to the Taliban. We all need to make sure that we have the capabilities that we need to ensure everybody’s security, including India’s, of course. So I am going to have some very specific conversations, continuing conversations that Secretary (Antony) Blinken has had (with Pakistan),” she added.

    Wendy Sherman is in Pakistan to meet officials during her October 7-8 visit.

    Sherman said that her trip to Islamabad is only for a “specific and narrow purpose”.

    Taking to Twitter, Sherman wrote, “I met yesterday evening with Pakistani National Security Advisor, Moeed Yusuf to discuss Afghanistan and areas of cooperation in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.”

    Ahead of her visit to Pakistan, Sherman told reporters, “We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counterterrorism and we expect sustained action against all militant and terrorist groups without distinction.”

    “Both of our countries have suffered terribly from the scourge of terrorism and we look forward to cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats,” she said.

  • ‘Trump administration enabled Taliban takeover, not Pak’: US Senator

    ‘Trump administration enabled Taliban takeover, not Pak’: US Senator

    United States (US) Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Tuesday that former US President Donald Trump’s administration had enabled the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, reports Dawn.

    The senator, a Maryland Democrat, argued at the first Senate hearing on the US withdrawal from Afghan soil that it was in Pakistan’s interest to “prevent chaos and civil war” in its neighbourhood.

    Responding to allegations that President Joe Biden’s administration was responsible for the chaos and the Taliban takeover, Senator Van Hollen engaged in a dialogue with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was the main witness.

    “Is it not the fact that the Trump administration asked the Pakistani government to release three top Taliban commanders as part of that process?” he asked.

    “That’s correct,” Blinken responded.

    Van Hollen asked Blinken that the former Afghan government was not included in the Doha talks and was pressurised to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners who were later involved in Kabul’s takeover, to which Blinken responded: “That’s correct.”

    The US senator also raised the agreement reached that said US forces would leave by May and would not be attacked but there was no such restriction on attacking Afghan forces, to which Blinken said he was correct.

    “And so, we pick a date. We say to the Taliban you can attack Afghan forces and then we say, now let’s negotiate the future of Afghanistan. Isn’t the way it was set up when you walked in?” the senator asked. “That’s essentially, yes,” Blinken replied.

    “There is a saying in Afghanistan, partners have watches, we have the time. So, the Trump administration, with this negotiation, set it up perfectly for the Taliban. Greenlight to attack the Afghan forces. No discussions going forward,” Van Hollen said.

    Blinken responded: “I believe that’s accurate.”

    Senator Van Hollen reminded Secretary Blinken that Trump even criticised Biden for not withdrawing the forces by May, as agreed in the US-Taliban agreement.

    He noted that the Biden administration now had both Pakistan and India on the table because the Afghan dispute could not be resolved without involving regional players.

    “I think a number of those countries, at least Pakistan — like India, like the others — have an interest in preventing chaos and civil war in Afghanistan,” he added.

    Then returning to Pakistan, he said: “Obviously, we asked them to release prisoners that they had locked up, Taliban prisoners. So, obviously, we have to keep an eye on the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), [I] get that, but let’s all work together to achieve the goal of a stable Afghanistan that protects the rights of its people.”

    On the other hand, National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf on Wednesday said that the US should listen to Pakistan’s message as it reassesses its relationship with the country.

    “If there has to be a reassessment, the reassessment has to conclude that what Pakistan was saying made sense. So now what Pakistan is saying we should give a fair hearing to,” he said.

    On Monday, Antony Blinken said the US would be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks to formulate what role Washington would want it to play in the future of Afghanistan.

  • Anti-state trends

    Anti-state trends

    Earlier this week, a report was released by the Digital Media Wing (DMW) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’. The report had glaring errors as it tried to ‘analyse’ hashtags on Twitter to determine anti-state activities. The Current published an analytical report after going through the report page by page. The report mostly had screenshots of tweets that the government has deemed ‘anti-state’ and included tweets that were responding to some hashtags. Some hashtags in the report were there just for the sake of putting them there and labelling people ‘anti-state’. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has clarified that no Pakistani was declared anti-state in the DMW report but it was done to expose Indian bots. A disclaimer was also added after journalist Fereeha Idrees raised the issue as her name was also part of the report. Despite the disclaimer, the report’s name and a press conference by the Information Minister as well as National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf show that the government takes Twitter too seriously, as seriously as it takes media criticism.

    Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) slammed the report for including journalists and political opponents in this report. It is indeed worrying that this trend of dishing out patriotism certificates has not stopped despite the fact that we have seen how dangerous it can be. Today is Pakistan’s Independence Day. We hope that our leaders will understand that all Pakistanis love Pakistan and their love or dissent does not mean it makes their patriotism any less. We all want Pakistan to prosper and we should not think that criticising the flawed policies of a state does not mean that such people should be labelled ‘traitors’ or ‘anti-state’. These tags have very serious repercussions in Pakistan.

    It was also disturbing to see that the Noor Mukadam case was also mentioned in the report just because Indian channels also made reports about the case. It should not have been part of the report. The US did not call the Black Lives Matter movement ‘anti-state’. It was covered the world over. A state should not be so insecure. Dissent is a fundamental part of strengthening democracy. On this Independence Day, let us hope our leaders are more tolerant of dissenting views and objective criticism. Pakistan Zindabad!

  • ‘If a phone call and a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options’: Moeed Yusuf tells US

    ‘If a phone call and a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options’: Moeed Yusuf tells US

    National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has said that Pakistan has other options if United States (US) President Joe Biden continues to ignore the country’s leadership.

    While speaking to Finacial Times (FT), Yusuf categorically said, “If a phone call is a concession, if a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options.”

    “We’ve been told every time that . . . [the phone call] will happen, it’s technical reasons or whatever. But frankly, people don’t believe it,” Yusuf added.

    Moeed Yusuf’s statement came as a complaint about Joe Biden’s failure to contact Prime Minister Imran Khan as Washington seeks help to stop the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan following US troop withdrawal.

    “The cold shoulder from Washington comes as the Taliban has captured swaths of territory across Afghanistan in a ruthless offensive emboldened by the US pullout,” the report added.

    “The president of the United States hasn’t spoken to the prime minister of such an important country who the US itself says is make-or-break in some cases, in some ways, in Afghanistan — we struggle to understand the signal, right?”

    A Biden administration official told FT, “There are still a number of world leaders President Biden has not been able to speak with personally yet. He looks forward to speaking with Prime Minister Khan when the time is right.”

    The US State Department, however, has assured Islamabad that Washington recognises Pakistan’s vital role in restoring peace in Afghanistan and wants the country to play that role. “Pakistan has much to gain and will continue to have a critical role, be well-positioned to have a role in supporting the outcome” in Afghanistan, said US State Department’s spokesman Ned Price, reported Dawn.

    A person familiar with last week’s discussions between Yusuf and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan told FT: “The conversation about Afghanistan had been tough but that securing a political settlement … could help improve the US-Pakistan relationship dramatically.”

  • 300 CCTV camera data collected, abduction not confirmed: IG Islamabad

    300 CCTV camera data collected, abduction not confirmed: IG Islamabad

    Inspector-General (IG) Islamabad Qazi Jameel-ur-Rehman, during a press conference on Monday in Islamabad, said that the police have formed five teams to probe the “abduction” of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter.

    “We traced the entire route on which the daughter of the Afghan ambassador travelled and also traced both the taxi drivers who drove her,” he said. “Before going to the city’s F-9 Park, the ambassador’s daughter first went to the F-6 area,” added IG Islamabad.

    He said the purported abduction of the Afghan envoy’s daughter was a complete “blind case” and they collected data of around 300 CCTV cameras installed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

    As per police investigation, her abduction has not been proven yet, he maintained.

    Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said, “Pakistan wants to arrest and punish the culprits involved in alleged kidnapping as soon as possible.”

    The foreign minister further added, “I told the Afghan ambassador that we are aware of the security concerns he is having, therefore, we have beefed up all Afghan diplomats’ security.”

    National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Monday that Pakistan was currently a target of “hybrid warfare” and an entire network of information warfare was being used against the country.

    He said fake accounts and bots were being used to create a “narrative” against Pakistan, including regarding the incident involving the Afghan envoy’s daughter.

    Sharing slides on data gathered by the government, Yusuf said hashtags were being trended on a daily basis to create false impressions including that Pakistan “is doing something [wrong] in Afghanistan” and that the security situation in Pakistan was poor.

    “This is part of an orchestrated campaign of which various fronts have been opened against Pakistan,” he said, adding that the same accounts that did “fake propaganda” regarding Balochistan or Kashmir were also doing propaganda ever since the alleged abduction incident took place. According to Yusuf, some of these accounts were operated from inside Pakistan, while the rest were controlled from Afghanistan, India, and the West.

    FM Qureshi said that he spoke to his Afghan counterpart this morning and discussed the steps that the Government of Pakistan has so far taken to investigate the matter. 

    “We have assured the Afghan government that Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally overseeing the probe into the alleged abduction of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter,” he said. 

    Qureshi reiterated that the Afghanistan government should reconsider its decision to pull out its ambassador and diplomats from Pakistan, adding that if they want the investigation to be transparent, it will have to cooperate with Pakistan. 

    “We don’t have any intention to hide anything… we need their [Afghanistan’s] cooperation to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” he added.

    Earlier today, Foreign Minister Qureshi informed his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar that the security of the Afghan embassy and consulate in Pakistan had been further enhanced.

    The development comes a day after the Afghanistan government decided to withdraw its ambassador and senior diplomats from Pakistan, a move that Islamabad termed as “unfortunate and regrettable”.

  • Pakistan denied US the chance to demand air bases: Moeed Yusuf

    Pakistan denied US the chance to demand air bases: Moeed Yusuf

    National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has said that Pakistan has not given a chance to the United States (US) to demand airbases after withdrawal from Afghanistan, reports The News.

    In an interview with a private news channel, Moeed Yusuf said it was quite understandable that the US would be in search of airbases after leaving Afghanistan.

    He said an article appeared in New York Times about the issue at hand and Pakistan had to clarify its position.

    Yusuf said Pakistan’s position is that it cannot provide airbases to the US.

    In an interview with Jonathan Swan of HBO Axios, Prime Minister Imran Khan reiterated Pakistan’s stance on the use of military bases and categorically stated that Pakistan will “absolutely not” allow the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to use bases on its soil for cross-border counter-terrorism missions after American forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

    Moeed said the New York Times story was not a coincidence as it created an atmosphere and Pakistan had to clarify its position on the issue.

    The NSA said the world should not consider Pakistan ‘free for all’.

    However, earlier this week, a senior western diplomat said that the US has “at no stage or at any level even asked” Pakistan for military bases, as its forces depart from Afghanistan.

    “Nobody in the entire US administration asked for bases, and yet there is so much focus on the issue in Pakistan,” said the official.

  • RAW behind Lahore blast, says Moeed Yusuf

    Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf on Sunday said that the mastermind of the attack, which killed three people and left 24 others injured, “is an Indian citizen and [Indian intelligence agency] RAW is in touch with hum”.

    Yusuf was addressing a press conference alongside the Punjab police chief and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

    Yusuf added that the IG has said we have the intelligence that a foreign intelligence agency was involved. “Today without a doubt I want to say, [the circumstances] of this entire attack lead to Indian-sponsored terrorism.”

    “I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly, that this particular incident on June 23 in Lahore…we have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records that point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists,” Moeed Yusuf added.

    “Through forensic analysis, electronic equipment that has been recovered from these terrorists, we have identified the main mastermind and the handlers of this terrorist attack and we have absolutely no doubt or reservation in informing you that the main mastermind belongs to RAW, the Indian intelligence agency, is an Indian national, and is based in India,” he said.

    The National Security adviser also talked about the attempts of cyberattacks against Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, adding, “We have no doubt that the Johar Town and cyber attacks are linked. And the number in which [the cyber attacks] were done, there is no doubt that there was state involvement of our neighbour.”

    On June 23, a powerful blast near the residence of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed killed three people and injured 24 others, including a police constable.

  • Not concerned by the contacts between India and Afghan Taliban, says Moeed Yusuf

    Not concerned by the contacts between India and Afghan Taliban, says Moeed Yusuf

    National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf while speaking on Dawn News programme ‘Live with Adil Shahzeb’ said that India should be ashamed of meeting the Afghan Taliban  after having supported operations against the insurgent group for a long time.

    Yusuf was responding to the Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s recent stopovers in Doha to meet with the Taliban leadership twice in the last three weeks.

    “I want to ask this: with what [moral] standing did this Indian high-level official meet [the Taliban] there? Did they not feel ashamed?” Yusuf said when asked how Pakistan viewed the India-Taliban meetings.

    “[The Indians] kept having the Taliban killed daily and kept giving funds for operations against them and today they have reached there to have talks,” he added.

    Yusuf said the meetings were “a matter of shame” and not a strategic move.

    He emphasised that the Taliban, whom the Indians had met, were also “not stupid”, saying he was not concerned by the contacts between India and the insurgent group amid the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    “You should also ask what response the [Indians] got from the [Taliban],” he added.

    Speaking about Pakistan-India relations, the NSA said there were no backdoor talks or dialogue between the two countries for now.

    ‘’India contacted us [and said] that they wanted to fix [relations] and we told them we desired the restoration of pre-August 2019 status of Indian-occupied Kashmir; besides, our policy is based on the ease of life for Kashmiris,’’ he stated.

  • ‘If the US President doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, Goodluck, no one is waiting here’: Moeed Yusuf

    ‘If the US President doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, Goodluck, no one is waiting here’: Moeed Yusuf

    National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said that if US President Joe Biden doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, then “good luck” as no one is waiting here for his call either.

    Speaking on Geo News programme, ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Moeed Yusuf said that the current Afghanistan situation is not good.

    Yusuf complained about the lack of coordination among the Pakistani and US officials in Afghanistan, saying we came to know about the withdrawal of foreign troops from the media.

    “We don’t want anyone to insult the US but if the finger is pointed at Pakistan, then it will be responded to,” Yusuf said.

    He was responding to a question asked about Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s comments about Biden. In a recent interview, PM Khan had said that US President Joe Biden has not spoken to him since assuming office as president.

    “Whenever he has time he can speak to me. At the moment, clearly, he has other priorities,” he had told Axios anchor Jonathan Swan

    Yusuf said Pakistan’s prime minister was of the view that a military solution was not possible in Afghanistan, adding that had that advice been taken, things would have been much different.

    “Everyone wants stability in the country,” he said.